There are innumerable instances in which one needs to provide one or more holes, notches or the like in a plastic film in the course of a converting process. In most cases, the tolerances on these holes are relatively broad, and the apparatus that has been used has been designed for high speed for great economy. The most frequent form of apparatus presently used for punching holes in plastic film includes a relatively large female die member with a toothed male cutter cooperable therewith. While such an arrangement is generally satisfactory, one cannot hold close tolerances with such a cutter, especially after the cutter has been used long enough that it becomes dull. In addition, such cutters are subject to the build-up of plastic thereon so that, with extended use, the cutter must be removed and cleaned.
It is currently a common practice to utilize plastic bags for packaging, the arrangement being such that a stack of plastic bags is held on a wicket, the top bag is opened by a blast of air, and the force of inserting goods into the bags rips the bag from the wicket. To accomplish this packaging method successfully, the bags are provided with a wicket hole at the top, with a slit extending from the top edge of the bag towards the wicket hole. With such an arrangement, it will be understood that the film remaining between the wicket hole and the slit is extremely important since the bag must stay on the wicket while the bag is opened, but must come off the wicket promptly when the goods are placed into the bag. With the prior art hole punching apparatus the wicket holes and slits can be punched sufficiently accurately while the cutters are sharp; but, when the cutters become dull and/or have plastic material built up on the edges of the cutters, there tends to be a stretching of the film before the film is cut. This results in a larger distance between the wicket hole and the slit so the bags do not always come off the wicket at the appropriate time during the packaging operation.
It will also be understood by those skilled in the art that, in the punching of holes in a plurality of bags being manufactured, there is a large quantity of scrap material in the form of small disks. While prior art punching apparatus utilizes waste chutes and bags in an attempt to contain the scrap material, the material is so light in weight and so subject to the accumulation of a static electric charge, that much of the scrap either misses the waste bin or sticks to some other portion of the machinery and becomes a problem both in the general clutter and in the interference with operation of machinery.